Breaking News Emails

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

March 21, 2018, 6:00 PM GMT / Updated March 21, 2018, 6:14 PM GMT

By Lucy Bayly

The Federal Reserve voted Wednesday to raise interest rates by one-quarter of a percentage point, in the central bank’s first policy meeting led by its new chairman, Jerome "Jay" Powell.

The move marks the first rate hike for 2018, bringing the benchmark interest rate to a range of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent due to a "strengthened" economic outlook, said the Federal Open Market Committee in a statement. But it won’t be the last rate hike this year — the Fed has already penciled in three increases, with a fourth one also likely, depending on the pace of economic growth.

During his five years as a governor, Powell was mostly aligned with Yellen’s dovish policy-making — but the heating up of the economy after years of easy lending has brought the Federal Reserve into a new era. The chairman must balance out the burgeoning job market, an uptick in wages, and the Trump administration’s economic stimulus package, all of which could lead to an overheating of the economy — and inflation.

It’s been two years since the Fed started to tighten its monetary policy, having held rates at close to zero for seven years while it helped to shepherd the nation out of a recession.

Higher rates are a boon for consumers who have money stashed in savings accounts, which are currently offering the highest rates in more than seven years.

However, each hike in the interest rate means that consumers with credit card debt will have to fork out a little extra each month to meet the minimum payment — and delinquency rates are already on the rise, indicating that many Americans are already overextended.

Homeowners with a fixed rate mortgage are not affected by rate hikes, but anyone with an adjustable-rate mortgage will find themselves shelling out hundreds more by the end of the year.